With modernity, Aikido has become kawaii (cute).
This “Aikido” doesn't interest me. In fact, I defend the idea that it's not legitimate to keep the name Aikido, because it's not the art developed, or rather brought to light, by the Founder O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba.
Above all, Aikido is martial. The video below is a further example of this, and a continuation of the previous section :
In the Japanese tea ceremony, the fundamental beauty of a cup is to fulfill its function. It can be more or less beautiful, of course, but it can't be beautiful if it doesn't first and foremost fulfill its function. Kasama, the city of Japanese potters, is not far from Iwama. A cup is made for drinking tea, and Aikido is designed to be martially effective. Aikido can be aesthetic, but it can't be aesthetic if it doesn't fulfill its martial function. The opposite is true : the aesthetics of Aikido are linked to, and dependent on, the martial value of the movement.
Music, dance, painting, literature... There is no martial dimension in these fields, strictly speaking, but they all have one thing in common with each other and with the martial arts : their true aesthetics stem from the laws of harmony that have made these arts possible in the universe. Without respect for these laws, music is a dissonance, dance a gesticulation, painting a daub, literature a jumble of anecdotes. And Aikido, without respect for its essence, is likewise a simulacrum, a pantomime.
“Isn't it beautiful ?” I've seen judges validate 4th dan exams with this formula. The martial dimension was absent, the techniques were suicidal... it's beautiful, isn't it ? But what is beautiful, an elegant round leg, a haughty nod of the head, a look ?
Such criteria make us sit beside the Tao, for beauty that is appreciated solely by an individual's subjectivity is a highly relative beauty. There is a beauty that obeys objective laws, and this is the one to be sought. Ancient Greek tradition has preserved the memory of a certain statue of Zeus which produced exactly the same feeling in anyone who came to admire it. The Daedalus and Phidias of old did not create anything personal, it was the universe that spoke through their works, because they were able to perceive the laws of this universe and apply them to the art of sculpture. Aikido is the study of these same laws within the framework of the martial art. There can be no true aesthetics without understanding and respecting these laws.
We deceive ourselves and others with cute Aikido.
